Roscommon farm to host sheep conference workshop

A County Roscommon farm will be visited next week as part of the Teagasc National Sheep Conference.

The conference will take place on Thursday, June 18th in Ballinasloe. In a change to the format from previous years, the conference will be divided into two sessions, blending indoor conference presentations with outdoor practical workshops. One of those workshops will be held on the farm of John Galvin from Coolfree, Taughmaconnell. The conference will begin at 3 p.m. and run until 9 p.m. with food and refreshments provided between the two sessions.

The first session will take place in the Shearwater Hotel, Ballinasloe from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. with four papers on topics of significant interest to the sheep sector.

The first talk of the afternoon is on Bluetongue and other exotic diseases of sheep and will be delivered by Dr. Avril Hobson, senior superintending veterinary inspector with the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM).

The second talk will also focus on flock health with Jake Delaney, Teagasc Walsh Scholar, discussing lameness in sheep flocks, specifically the causes, management approaches and production effects associated with infectious lameness conditions.

Labour is regularly cited as an issue on sheep farms, and the third talk of the afternoon will be from Damian Costello, Teagasc sheep specialist, discussing results from a recent survey he carried out examining labour practices on Irish sheep farms. The first session will conclude with Darren Carty from the Irish Farmers Journal discussing the outlook for markets, DAFM schemes and the new CAP.

Following the first session, the conference will move to the farm of John Galvin, Coolfree, Taughmaconnell. From 5.30 p.m., there will be food and refreshments provided to attendees, sponsored by Kepak. There will also be a poster session from 5.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m., highlighting current Teagasc sheep research and attendees will have a chance to interact with the staff working on the various projects.

This second session at 7 p.m. will consist of interactive workshops on relevant topics at this time of year for all sheep farmers - grassland management, lameness control, internal parasite control, and flock breeding. Attendees will have the opportunity to attend all four workshops in the session over the course of the evening, and it is hoped there will be plenty of discussion amongst attendees and presenters at each of the workshops. The event will conclude at 9 p.m..

Head of the Teagasc Sheep Knowledge Programme Michael Gottstein said they were “encouraging all people who are involved or have an interest in the sheep industry to attend what promises to be an informative and highly practical event. This is a new format for us in Teagasc, and we hope that attendees will find the new format informative and interesting.”

All are welcome, no prior booking is required and there is no charge to attend.